Decolonisation, Indigenisation and Digital Returns: Two Case Studies from Australia

Abstract

This article centres on two digital return projects led by Yolngu community stakeholders from North East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Both projects illustrate how concepts of decolonisation and Indigenisation have been mobilised by Yolngu people within an affirmative action framework to overcome past malpractices, and to bring about a transformative environment of cultural reclamation and sovereignty. Both projects have served as pioneering models for digital return initiatives in Australia and internationally. The discussion begins by briefly addressing some of the critical differences between repatriation and the return of documentary heritage in the form of digital ‘archives’ (including collection images and provenance data, photographs, film and sound recordings). It then outlines two different but related pathways taken by Yolngu stakeholders in establishing cultural archiving projects, each centred on decolonising and indigenising museum collections through collaborative partnerships with museums and universities. Inherent in these discussions is the idea that decolonisation is complex, multi-sited and multifocal. The article concludes by arguing that museums need to be more proactive in reconnecting communities with collections. Working collaboratively with First Nations and formerly colonised peoples to restore cultural knowledge lost as a direct result of colonisation is a vital step for moving forward.

Keywords:

• decolonisation
• Indigenisation
• repatriation
• digital and archival returns
• Yolngu
• Australia

Notes

1 Within the Australian museum sector, several guidelines have been established to fill the gaps left by a lack of federal legislation. The earliest and most significant of these was ‘Previous Possessions New Obligations’ produced by the Council of Australian Museums Associations in 1993. This was revised by Museums Australia in 2005 and relaunched as ‘Continuous Cultures, Ongoing Responsibilities’. Most recently, in 2018 the Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA) in partnership with Indigenous lawyer and rights advocate Terri Janke, released ‘First Peoples: A Roadmap for Enhancing Indigenous Engagement in Museums and Galleries’.

2 These include the Ara Irititja Project (https://irititja.com/), Mulka Project (http://www.mulka.org), Mukurtu platform (https://mukurtu.org/) and OCCAMS (https:// anu.edu.au/occams/).

3 ‘Digital repatriation’ should then refer exclusively to the return of born-digital and digitised materials in which full legal control and copyright is accorded to the community of origin.

4 This kind of professional collaboration between and across a series of museums sharing related documents and knowledge for the benefit of First Nations communities is highly significant. Some recent Australia Research Council-funded projects involving the digital return of internationally distributed collections to Yolngu communities include The Relational Museum and its Objects (Howard Morphy CI); Clouded and mobile delivery platforms for early collections of Yolngu cultural heritage (Joseph Gumbula CI); The legacy of 50 years of collecting at Milingimbi Mission (Louise Hamby CI); Contexts of Collection, a dialogic approach to the making of the material record of Yolngu cultures (Howard Morphy CI); and Anthropological and Aboriginal perspectives on the Donald Thomson Collection (Nicolas Peterson CI).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Edmundson

Anna Edmundson is a Curator and Lecturer in the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the Australian National University (ANU). As a curator she has worked collaboratively with over 30 Australian First Nations and Pacific Islander communities to produce award-winning exhibitions such as Adorned at the Macleay Museum, Dhari a Krar at the National Museum of Australia, and most recently, Piksa Inap Tok (Pictures Can Talk) at the ANU. As an academic, her research focuses on colonial collecting and governmentality in Papua New Guinea, Indigenising museums in Australia and the Pacific, and connecting communities and collections through new models of digital access and engagement